Madigan: Blago's had his chance

The Illinois state legislature is convening Tuesday to consider impeaching embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich – but their work is expected to take several days, if not weeks.

“We have given the governor six days to resign…he’s declined to take the opportunity to resign,” Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, a frequent Blagojevich critic, said Monday. “I think it’s time to move forward.”

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State legislators have been reviewing grounds for impeachment for about a year, because Blagojevich had been under federal investigation since 2005. But Madigan said, “We never came to a judgment that impeachment was appropriate until the events of six days ago.”

A bipartisan committee will weigh a possible impeachment through the end of the year, with breaks on the holidays, Madigan said. Blagojevich will have an opportunity to appear before the 21-member committee and lawmakers will get input from investigators.

"We will have evidence. We'll ask for the cooperation of the office of the United States attorney," Madigan said. "Our desire would be that office would give us whatever information they deem appropriate to give us for purposes of the committee hearing."

If an impeachment case passes the House, it would then move to the Senate, Madigan said.

At the same time, the state legislature is also taking up a bill to wrest the power to appoint Barack Obama’s successor to the U.S. Senate away from Blagojevich by holding a special election. Blagojevich now says he would sign that bill.

According to a 76-page affidavit, Blagojevich, along with his chief of staff, was angling to cut a deal for Obama’s Senate seat for a cabinet appointment or a another high profile position. The affidavit also alleges that Blagojevich was involved in several “pay to play” arrangements with various donors.

Federal investigators have said that nobody in the Obama transition team is the target of their probe. Obama’s transition team announced Monday that his review of transition aides who had contacts with Blagojevich over the seat has been completed – but won’t be released until next week, at the request of federal prosecutors.